Arisu's Mystery
by Torren
Summary: Arisu gets an email from some strange person named Lain...Who could she be? *takes place after anime ends* And i knwo the title sucks. any better ideas? please, tell!
1. The email

This is my first fic, and comments would be appreciated. I know the title sucks. Disclaimer: I don't own a thing related to the fic, yadda yadda yadda. This takes place a few months after Lain deletes herself from everyone's memory.  
  
Arisu entered her bedroom and turned on her new Navi. She watched it boot up, then clicked on her icon leading to her e-mail.  
"You have one Mail"  
"From who?" Arisu asked.  
"Lain"  
Arisu was confused. She never got junk mail, special filters helped with that so she knew that it couldn't be that, but still, she had no clue who this 'Lain' was. Hoping it was not a virus, and trusting her Navi, she decided to open it.  
"Navi, open mail"  
"Hello Arisu," the computer spoke, "I know you do not know me any longer, but I still regret what happened to you when we were friends." When we were friends? Arisu thought, I never knew a Lain.did I? "There are many things I now regret, and leaving you is one of them. You were so kind to me, my best friend, and I wish to repay you for your kindness." What the hell kind of prank is this? "Please, I know this is hard to understand, but you will soon. They all will. I wish for you one favor. Go to the residence of Iwakura, and talk with Mika. She will have a high-powered navi chip that I want you to have. She will not resist giving it to you, just ask nicely for it. Ask her about the 'Psyche' chip. When you have it in your navi, I want you to be connected. Truly connected to the Wired. Join me here, if only for a few minutes, just once. ~Lain"  
This was just too weird. This girl wanted her to go to the house down the street where the fire was a few weeks ago. The papers all said one of the rooms had a lot of Navi equipment, and it exploded. The Iwakura's denied ever having any Navi equipment in that room. The Iwakura's were strange, and their only daughter, Mika, was the strangest of all. She didn't talk at all, and seemed to just make strange sounds when the mood swayed her to. And now Arisu was being asked by a stranger to talk to her, and get a Psyche chip, whatever that was. Arisu considered her options, and decided to go with the mail. She was going to get that chip; she was too curious not to. * * * About a block away from her destination, Arisu stopped. "What am I doing? Its just some prank email from someone who wants to bother me, and probably that girl, Mika, too. Why am I going through with this?" she asked herself. A small voice in the back of her mind nagged back You know you want to find out. You knew Lain somehow.and you want to know her again. Let this happen, just a little while. Concede with her plans, and connect just once. That is all it will take. Just once. Arisu bowed her head, ambivalent thoughts filling her head. "Just once. That is all it will take. Just once. That's all she asked, right? If something happens I can leave, log off, whatever, and never pay a second glance at the email, right? Right." She stepped on. At the door, Arisu stopped again, taking a deep breath. She knocked a few times. The door opened, Mrs. Iwakura at the door. "May I help you?" She asked "Uh, yes. May I speak to Mika?" "Who are you?"  
  
'Huh?" "So I can tell her who wants to talk with her?" "Oh, I'm a friend form school" "Alright. You can go up. She's in her room. Just up the stairs and to the right." Arisu walked up, took a pause before the door supposedly Mika's, and knocked. The door opened, yielding a small bedroom. The TV was on and Mika looked a bit dazed watching it. "M-mika?" Arisu hesitated. Mika looked at her with the same dazed look she always had on her face. "I was told to ask you about a Navi chip. A Psyche I think it was. Do you think I could have it?" Mika thought for a moment, and looked to her dresser. On top was a small envelope. Mika walked to it, picked it up, and gave it to Arisu. She made a few strange noises, and sat before the television again. "Thank you, Mika" Arisu said, and left the room, then the house. "That wasn't too hard.I hope this is worth something." She walked home. Once home, Arisu went to her room, and opened her Navi, to the motherboard. A bit confused, she put it somewhere, and hoped it was the right place. It seemed to fit, so she didn't know what it wouldn't work. As long as it didn't blow up, Arisu was happy. "I wonder what it does" Arisu put her Navi back together, and turned it on.  
  
"You have mail," it said "Open it." "Arisu, I had doubted that you would go though with getting the chip, but I thank you for going do. Now, I will bring you to me, I will connect you to here. Tell me when you are ready, and I will bring you to the Wired" "I'm ready," Arisu replied. Things got swirly, and really weird. Soon Arisu felt herself stop moving, and she opened her eyes and looked around. "What is this place?" Things looked digital, and things were flying by going every which way. She found herself on a small crossroad of a whitish material beneath her feet. A girl appeared before her, wearing a grayish skirt and a pinkish tank top. She smiled and stepped toward Arisu.To Be Continued. 


	2. Reality Check

The girl smiled at Arisu's appearance.  
Arisu looked at her. "Lain?" she asked, hoping this was the girl who contacted her.  
"Yes, Arisu." Lain was smiling like a kid. She was a kid; she looked about 13 years old. Just how she remembered.wait, that was impossible! Arisu had never met a Lain in her life! There was no such girl in her memories.Yet, Lain looked too familiar. Arisu was sure she knew her from somewhere.  
"I'm happy you came, Arisu. I wasn't sure you would.to be honest, I thought you wouldn't. You never were one to meet on the Wired. Over time I guess all things change."  
Arisu and Lain faced each other on opposite branches of the crossroads.  
"Who are you?"  
"I am Iwakura Lain. The girl who sat in the front center of our class back in school."  
  
"But no one sat there."  
"I did.No one sat in the back corner either."  
"I've missed you Lain," came a voice from Arisu's right. A silhouette came closer to the center where Lain and Arisu stood. Her glasses were large, and her pigtails came over her shoulders. She looked to the ground, but looked up when she stopped. She looked to Lain, smiling, then to Arisu.  
"Chisa?" Arisu asked the new girl.  
"Yes, Arisu, its me. Yamoda Chisa."  
"Lain, I've missed you," Chisa said again.  
"I've missed you too. You showed me this place, but I never got to thank you."  
"I understand"  
"What's going on here? Arisu was confused, Chisa knew who Lain was? How was that possible?  
"Lain.I'm sorry.you are not who I remember you to be." Reika's voice came from the last road leading up to the place where they all now stood. "You were never a baby, like I always said."  
"What's going on here? What is all this?" Arisu questioned.  
"Arisu.I know what you must feel like, but I don't know what else to say. It hurts, I know, it hurts me more. To not be known, to be forgotten by everyone, by choice, is much worse. This is my fate, but I have chosen this. I made my decision, but I regret everything now. Chisa, you know what this is like, right? What should I do?" Lain sounded as if she was almost in tears, and she was.  
"Follow your heart. Whatever you chose is your destiny. You are God here. You can do as you please, you know that. I know that too. You have chosen in the past to be forgotten, but you see as well as I did that is not the right decision. It may look right at the time, and may feel right at the time, but there is nothing worse than to sit and watch your friend's happy lives without you. The memories were not written over, just suppressed and copied and altered to seem like they were. Like a ball of yarn, once the end is found the beginning will be soon. You can change what you wish; you can fix what you have done.It is your choice, Lain" Chisa said. Arisu had never heard the laconic girl speak so much at one time, she was always so quiet it didn't seem as if it were possible for her.  
"Lain? Lain? I have seen you before, haven't I?"  
"Yes, Arisu. You have. I suppose what happened was wrong. I guess that this must be fixed. The memory is merely a record that can be rewritten, so it can be fixed, and altered so it represents what truly happened, right? Arisu, you know what happened. Arisu, it will be hard to remember, it will hurt. I never meant to hurt you, Arisu, know this. I loved you, and still do."  
"Lain.what are you saying?"  
"Please, Arisu, I'm sorry."  
"It was never your fault."  
"Everything was my fault"  
"No, Lain, nothing was. You were a pawn. You were used. You weren't a baby at all. You didn't know anything about what you were doing, did you?" Arisu jumped, she had forgotten Reika was there.  
"No, no I did! Arisu! I kept your memories, I don't know why you don't know me! Arisu! I never meant to hurt you like this! Arisu, I'm so sorry!" Lain's knees gave out and she broke down crying.  
The three girls other than Lain in this abandoned place ran to her, trying to comfort the girl. Arisu hugged her tightly, while the other 2 faded into reality.  
"Arisu.You were my only friend."  
"Lain, that's not true."  
"Yes it is, you know it is!"  
"Lain, come home"  
"But, I cant,"  
"Yes, you can. You have to, Lain. Your friends need you." Chisa reappeared on the other side of Lain.  
Lain looked at her, her face tear stained and red.  
"I will take over here until you need to return. They don't need me as much as they need you. You need to be there, you are needed, you are loved. Go."  
* * *  
"Ohayo!" gleamed Arisu as she walked into school.  
"Ohayo!" Reika and Juri called back as Arisu ran over to her friends. They heard the bell calling them into school, and they went to their classroom.  
Arisu took her usual seat near the back in the side row, right near Reika and Juri. Today a girl with short brown hair occupied the seat in the center of the front row.  
"Whose that?" Juri asked.  
"I don't know. New girl, I think," answered Reika. "I guess she's taking that other girl, Chisa's place here. Seems like she'd be nice."  
"What happened to Chisa?" Arisu asked, wondering about her classmate.  
"Duh! She moved last week, remember?" Reika rolled her eyes.  
"Oh.yeah." Arisu replied while Juri and Reika giggled. Arisu looked up to see the new girl stand and walk over to them.  
"Hi," she said, "I'm Iwakura Lain."  
"I'm Arisu. Nice to meet you." Arisu introduced herself, then Reika and Juri.  
"Where you from?" Reika asked."  
"I just transferred here from a private school in town." Lain answered.  
Just then the teacher came in and told them to take their seats.  
"Oops, guess I got to go then. Talk to you later!" Iwakura Lain trotted to her seat happily. She seemed a little giddy for a new student.  
Once Lain sat down, she looked back to Arisu and winked at her, Arisu winking back in reply. Only they had to know what really happened.  
  
* * *  
So, you like? I know its kinda confusing, but I think its kinda neat too. At first it sounded like a game of "This is Your Life" Arisu style. Oh well, C+C please!!!! 


End file.
